Two people arrested for allegedly falsifying documents related to GPHA's recipes

Crime & Punishment of Tuesday, April 16, 2019

Source: EOP

2019-04-16

Two people were arrested for falsifying documents related to GPHA's revenue in Tema.

The two, Paul Amesu Regatta, a clearing agent, and David Kambadah, a coffee farmer, were arrested when they allegedly stopped the port GPHA charges of 1,749.11 GHC to read 4,491.59.

Instead of presenting the actual amount of the port handling charges to the importer who hired him to badist in clearing his goods, the agent would rather have inflated the cost to enable him to make a profit of 2,642.48 GHC with the help of the coffee operator.

The importer, who was concerned about the high port handling fees that his agent had presented to him, had sought clarification from the GPHA Revenue Center, where it had been revealed to him that the document that his agent had presented to him was wrong and had been inflated.

Colonel Joseph Punamane, Tema Port security officer, in charge of Tema port security, handed the two men to the Ghana Police Service Maritime Police Unit to help them carry out their duties. surveys.

"It's very dangerous because it gives the impression that port taxes are very high. We therefore deemed it imperative to resolve them by handing them over to the police, "said the port security officer.

In the meantime, port authorities continue to urge importers who do not rely on accusations by their agents to accompany them to ports to seek the necessary clarifications.

"Our importers have the freedom to come to the port. We have the rule that allows the customs clearance agent and the shipper to come to the port with two representatives of the importer. They must get involved if it is an identified problem. If the importer must receive the invoices, these can still be part of the invoice evaluation process to confirm whether there is an authentic invoice or not. It's very important that they do it, "implored the Director General, Marketing and Business of GPHA.

Esther Gyebi-Donkor, General Manager, Marketing and Corporate Affairs, GPHA, said that the agents who falsify the GPHA's port taxes give importers and the public the impression that the cost of transactions in the port is high.

Most of the time, because of these unscrupulous acts, importers complain that port taxes are so high, "she said.

She added that port authorities are taking steps to ensure that importers know how much port handling fees they have to pay.

"The importer can go with the clearing agent to pay the money to the bank. The GPHA service fee can be paid at any Ecobank or AfDB branch. We encourage importers to be more involved in not letting these negative people make losses and make our ports expensive. "